


Then We'll Come From the Shadows

by StarMaamMke



Series: Oops Baby [1]
Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Adventure, Angst, F/M, Prequel to my oops baby series, Romance, darkish
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-12-27
Updated: 2018-01-16
Packaged: 2019-02-22 18:31:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 7,059
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13172742
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StarMaamMke/pseuds/StarMaamMke
Summary: Joyce Byers and Jim Hopper are nearing contentment with their odd little family. An old friend from Chicago arrives to throw a monkey wrench into everything. Prequel to "Oops Baby: Scenes From an Unplanned Pregnancy".Title based on a line in the song "The Partisan" by Leonard Cohen.





	1. Prologue

**Hawkins Indiana**

**Halloween, 1985**

 

“I thought you were going as a ghost, kid. You said so last year.” Jim Hopper commented as his adopted daughter stood in front of a full-length mirror in Joyce Byers’s living room, as the older woman crouched at her side and put the finishing touches on her jumpsuit. Jane shook her curly head and adjusted the large toy gun that was strapped over her shoulder.

 

“Nope. Ripley. She’s bitchin’.”

 

“And I suppose you’re encouraging this?” Jim inquired, gently nudging Joyce’s shin with one booted foot.

 

Joyce shrugged, looking up at him with a mysterious half-smile, several pins held in one corner of her mouth. “I didn’t discourage it. She said she wanted to be a ghost last year because no one would be able to recognize her, and now she’s in school. She wants to stand out a little, Hop.”

 

“Thanks, Mom.” 

 

Joyce reared back at Jane’s form of address, her eyes wide and her mouth slightly agape.  _ Thanks, Mom _ . Mom. Her eyes darted up to Jim and saw that he appeared to be similarly flummoxed; there was a deep, red color high in his cheeks, and he kept opening and closing his mouth as though to say something, but the words were failing him. 

 

“Is that okay?”

 

Joyce tore her eyes away from Jim and back up to the young girl who was peering down at her with large, imploring eyes. Jane’s brow was knit in the pitiful expression she used when she was afraid she had said or done the wrong thing. Joyce stood and pulled Jane into her arms, embracing her with all the love she had in her heart for the girl, burying her face in her sweet-smelling curls to place a kiss on the top of her head. 

 

“Of course it’s okay. You just caught me off guard is all, sweetie.”

 

“Are you sure?”

 

Was she sure? Joyce certainly thought so. Jane had just recently started referring to Jim as ‘Dad’, which had been a shock for sure, one that Joyce and her boys had been privy to, since it occurred during Easter dinner at the cabin. Added to the fact that she and Jim were no longer pretending that they were simply very close friends that sometimes had sleepovers in the same bed (he and Jane moved in with Joyce and the boys at the end of the summer), Jane probably figured referring to Joyce as ‘Mom’ was just the natural progression.

  
  


“Absolutely. I’m honored that you would think of me like that,” Joyce announced as she released Jane. Jim had a soft, almost dreamy expression on his face when Joyce glanced up at him, searching for signs of approval. He gave her a little nod, stepped forward, and pulled both of his girls into a big hug.

 

“You make a really bitchin’ Ripley, kiddo. Thanks for the help, Joyce.” he released them and walked to the front door to grab his coat from the hook. “This time I swear I will be home in time for trick or treating.”

 

Jane wrinkled her nose. “Oh, no thank you. Nancy and Jonathan are taking me and Max and the boys. You and Joyce don’t have to come.”

 

Jim grabbed his chest and gasped as though wounded. It certainly did sting a bit, his girl’s burgeoning independence, but he kept a charming grin on his face, and a mischievous look in his eyes as he blew Joyce a kiss and a wink, before walking out the front door. 

 

It was a tight squeeze, fitting him and Jane into the little house near Mirkwood, but they made it work, and it wasn’t permanent. Jim had just finished paying off a very important piece of jewelry, and with that out of the way, he could focus on saving up for a down payment on a house; a nice, big one with a white picket fence and a basement he could convert into a nice little den. This all, of course depended on whether or not Joyce was in a mood to say yes. 

 

He realized their relationship was not conventional. She had turned to him shortly after Bob died, lonely and desperate for a connection with someone who understood her. It was just sex, she insisted, and the kids could never know because it would confuse them. Things became muddled, the more time he and Jane spent at Joyce’s house. The clandestine trips from the couch back to her room, and then back to the couch again before anyone woke up were soon set aside once the two of them became comfortable and lazy; plus the kids weren’t stupid. 

 

Jonathan had been the first to find out, encountering Jim sneaking out of Joyce’s room in the wee hours of the morning when he was sneaking in from visiting Nancy Wheeler. The two men promised they wouldn’t rat the other out, but Jonathan had been very firm about the fact that Jim’s name would be mud if he ever hurt Joyce. As if Jim ever could; she was the one calling the shots in the strange-- whatever they were doing. If anyone was going to get hurt, it would probably be him. 

 

Of course, once Jonathan found out, the other began to catch on as well, which was fine, because one day, completely out of the blue, Joyce said she simply did not want to sneak around anymore. That they had nothing to be ashamed of, and if people wanted to make her feel guilty, they could go to hell because she knew about at least five extramarital affairs going on in town, and wasn’t that worse than simply not wanting to be lonely when there was no one around to hurt? Jim, as with all things pertaining to Joyce, nodded in agreement and went along with it. He didn’t even try to play coy, because he had wanted the exact thing from the first moment she pulled him into her bedroom on Christmas Eve. He probably wanted it for a lot longer than that, come to think of it, but it had all come into sharp focus that night. He was a goner for her, always had been, and always would be.

 

And now the expensive proof of his steadfastness rested in a tiny box that he kept tucked in the breast pocket of his uniform, waiting for a perfect time that constantly failed to appear. He wanted it to be natural; no meticulously planned dinner or public display for his Joyce, no, that would only embarrass her. It just… needed to happen-- preferably organic-like. 

 

But not Halloween. Especially not this Halloween. They were edging closer to the one year anniversary of Bob Newby’s horrific demise, and he knew it was taking a toll on Joyce. He could feel it in the hesitancy of her smiles and embraces, and the way she would sneak outside by herself in the middle of movie nights to stand on the porch and stare into the distance. 

 

No. Best to wait until Thanksgiving… but not on Thanksgiving, that would be too premeditated. Maybe the day after, if she wasn’t too tired from working on Black Friday. Actually, maybe he’d aim for early December. But not Christmas or New Year’s. 

 

Sometime after his barrage of racing thoughts began, he found himself behind his desk, staring blankly at a mountain of paperwork as his coffee cooled in the cup. He didn’t even remember saying hello to Flo or the boys.

 

“Getting old and distracted,” he muttered, taking a long pull from his coffee cup. 

 

“Chief, we’ve got a situation,” Flo declared, bursting into his office. Jim frowned and shot to his feet, galvanized by the distressed look in her eyes. 

 

“What’s up?”

 

“There’s a very young, very foreign girl asking to see you. She looks like an MTV punk. Nothing like the kids from Hawkins High School. Now I told her you were bu--”

 

“Send her in.” 

 

_ I'm just curious why all of a sudden you look like some kind of MTV punk… _

 

The girl who stepped into his office was small, scarcely taller than Jane, but definitely older, or at least her dark eyes conveyed a heavy world-weariness beyond her years. Her mass of dark, purple streaked hair was shaved on one side, and her clothes definitely matched the aesthetic Jane had returned home with all those months ago. 

 

“So you’re Jane’s policeman,” the girl observed in a flat voice. Her accent was slightly lyrical, despite the dryness of her tone. English maybe?

 

“And who might you be?” Jim inquired, waving his hand towards the seat in front of his desk before returning to his own and settling in. He rested his elbows on his desk and steepled his fingers.

 

“Her sister,” the girl intoned, pushing up one tattered sleeve to reveal her 008 tattoo. 


	2. Chapter One

“Come here you poor thing,” the tiny lady named Joyce cooed as she pulled Kali into her arms. Kali stiffened in her arms, unaccustomed to physical contact, particularly from someone she just met. **  
**

“God sake, Joyce, let her breathe,” the policeman grumbled as he hung up his coat.

Kali observed her surroundings. The policeman had immediately taken her to this place, this… home. She was used to large, open warehouses; trashy and freezing… this tiny, cozy home was like nothing she had ever seen in her life. There had been two extremes in her sphere; sterile and bright, disgusting and dim. There had never been a place in her world for shabby warmth, shelves cluttered with chintzy knick-knacks, walls plastered in children’s art, or sloppily crocheted blankets thrown haphazardly over furniture. She had never seen more blankets in her life, actually.

Standing next to this woman, this Joyce Byers, was Jane, observing her with large, fearful eyes, her chin quivering ever-so-slightly. She knew what Kali was here for and she was not pleased.

“Sister,” Kali began, reaching one hand towards the frightened girl. Jane jerked away from her touch and shook her curly head.

“No.”

Joyce frowned and stepped away from the two girls. “What’s the matter, Jane? Aren’t you happy to see her?”

“No! You don’t know what she’s like. Dad, why is she here?” Jane turned to the policeman-Jim Hopper, as he had introduced himself on the ride to this place.

“She just showed up at the station looking for you, kid. If you want me to tell her to leave, I will, I just need to understand who she is.”

“She might have people missing her,” Joyce added, flashing those big, sympathetic eyes towards Kali, who shrunk inwardly at the expression. Who was this woman that she felt she needed to look at her with such open pity? Kali didn’t need her soft looks, or her sweet words. She needed her sister.

“No one is missing me, and I’ve already told you all that you need to understand, Mr. Policeman. I’m here for Jane.”

Jim shook his head and moved to stand between Kali and Jane. “Jane isn’t going anywhere. This is where she belongs.”

Anger flashed through Kali like wildfire. “She belongs with her family!”

“THIS IS MY FAMILY!” The room shook with Jane’s rage, and Kali was sent reeling back, the ground pulling at her like a powerful magnet. She landed on the floor with a soft grunt, and when she looked up at Jane, she saw the blood running from the girl’s nose, and the hateful expression on her small, pale face.

Joyce was immediately kneeling on the floor, one hand on Kali’s shoulder to help her back to her feet. Kali slapped away the helping hand with a snarl.

“Don’t you hit my mom!” Jane snapped, moving to pull Joyce away from Kali. “I’m not going with you, Kali. We’ve talked about this, I can’t… I can’t do what you do.”

“Will someone PLEASE tell me what’s going on?” Jim demanded, impatience booming in his voice. “Joyce, stop trying to coddle this kid. She’s not a lost puppy–”

“Or a kid,” Kali added as she pulled herself to her feet and dusted off her jeans.

“–and you need to start talking. Why is my kid angry with you? Wait, no, let’s start with how my kid knows you in the first place, because I’m not going to sit here and watch my house be torn apart by two teenage girls, do I make myself clear?”

Something in Jim’s voice made Kali made her posture straighten, her head automatically nod in agreement. She didn’t believe in obeying adults as a general rule, but this policeman was… well, he clearly cared for her Jane, and vice versa, so she saw no harm in complying, if just for a little while.

__________

“She’s a murderer, Joyce!” Jim exclaimed, pacing the bedroom they shared.

“Shhh, she’ll hear you, Hop. These walls are thin!” Joyce scolded as she sat in front of the vanity, putting her hair up into a bun for the night, her face smeared with cold cream. “And she’s a traumatized child, just like Jane… who has killed people, by the way.” she put up two hands in front of her when she noticed how Jim’s features darkened. “Not that I’m judging! They were terrible people.”

“Yeah, but this is different. Jane killed out of fear and this girl… this was all premeditated stuff.”

“But terrible people all the same.”

“And if she has the capabilities to plan all of this, to incite other kids to help her do her bidding, then what’s to stop her from going after people who are not so terrible, hmm? What are her standards for murder?”

Joyce threw her hair brush down and stood, her hands balled up into little fists. “And what do you want to do? Turn her in? Bring in more government goons to poke and prod at her like she’s some sort of animal?”

“The lab is closed!”

“But those sort of people still exist, Hop! You heard her; Brenner is out there somewhere, and if he’s around no one is safe, least of all Jane. I can’t believe you still let her out trick or treating after everything that girl told you!”

Jim took two steps so he was standing directly in front of Joyce. “Brenner is dead. There is absolutely no way he could still be alive, Owens said so. He wouldn’t have OK’d the kid coming out of hiding if there was even a small chance–”

“Owens may be your drinking buddy but he’s not all-seeing! Jesus Christ, what if she’s right?”

“She’s not.”

“Jane would be able to tell us for sure.”

Jim took a step back, blinking in astonishment. “Are you seriously suggesting she use her powers again? You really can’t see how it affects her? I wonder how she’d feel about calling you Mom if she knew–” he reeled back as Joyce shoved past him to grab a pillow and blanket from the bed.

“Where are you going?”

“I’m sleeping in the living room tonight.”

Jim scoffed. “Okay, well make sure you don’t get murdered!” he shouted, making sure his voice reverberated throughout the house.

________

Kali looked up from her makeshift bed on the couch as Joyce came storming into the room, a mound of linens in her arms.

“Are you okay, Mrs. Byers?” she asked, alarmed to see the hurt expression on the nice woman’s face. Even if she didn’t particularly care for the woman’s mothering ways, she was still the only person being kind to her.

“Let’s have a little sleepover, sweetie,” Joyce replied, spreading the blanket onto the floor.

“The policeman wants me to leave.”

“The policeman can blow it out his ass.”


	3. Chapter Two

Jane, Will, and Jonathan carefully and quietly walked through the front door of their house; the younger two clutching bags of candy in their fists. Jane’s eyebrows shot up to her hairline when she saw her mother sleeping on the living room floor; she turned her attention to Kali, who was still awake and sitting on the couch, a blanket around her thin shoulders. **  
**

“What happened?” Jane inquired in a soft voice.

“They fought. Your mother has a soft spot for ‘murderers’ that your father seems to lack,” Kali replied with a shrug. She gave a little wave to Will and Jonathan. “Hullo again.”

“Hey,” Jonathan and Will chorused, both boys looking utterly uncomfortable with her presence.

“I won’t murder any of you, if that’s what your worried about,” The girl assured them in a dry tone.

“So they’re letting you stay?” Jane set her bag down so she could cross her arms over her chest.

“Until they figure out what to do with me, or I run away; which is what I’m thinking the chief is hoping I will do.”

“Okay, well, I think Jonathan and I are going to go to bed. Goodnight you two,” Will announced, exchanging a nervous glance with his older brother.

“Good night. It’s been a pleasure meeting you, Will Byers.”

“… Yup.”

Jonathan knelt and shook his mother on the shoulder until she opened her bleary eyes and looked up. “Wha…”

“Come on, Mom; this is a hardwood floor, and you have a bad back. We’re taking you back to your room.” Both boys helped Joyce to her feet and started walking her down the hall to the room she shared with Jim. Jonathan knocked, and he and Will immediately averted their eyes to the floor. Jim tended to sleep without a shirt and neither of them were accustomed to the sight yet.

When Jim opened the door, Jonathan gave his mother a gentle push, she was asleep on her feet. Jim pulled her into his arms, took a step back, and gave the boys a sheepish look. “Thanks.”

“You’re not allowed to put my mom in the doghouse. This is still her place,” Jonathan lectured, refusing to make eye contact.

“I didn’t–”

“Okay, goodnight.” Jonathan abruptly pulled the door shut.

Once the boys were in their room (they shared now Jane and Jim were a part of the household), Jane took a seat on the couch, a safe distance from Kali, and folded her hands primly into her lap.

“What happened to the others?” She inquired.

Kali sighed and leaned back against the couch. “I didn’t kill them, if that’s what you’re wondering.”

“I wasn’t. But they’re your family and–”

“Were. Dottie went back home; turns out she was just a poor little rich girl looking for excitement; Axel and Mick are doing some sort of Bonnie and Clyde thing that I can’t get behind, and–”

“Too criminal for you?” Jane asked, sarcasm dripping from her voice. Kali frowned and let out an impatient sigh.

“Yes, I suppose. I don’t know where Funshine is. When the rest left, he was the only one who wanted to stick around, but he didn’t want to help me do… well, you know. I told him to go back to whatever it was he was doing before me. Apparently, he had enough money saved up to try and get me to settle into a normal life where he gets to pretend to be my father and send me to school, or something noble like that. He’s like the chief, I guess.”

“Why didn’t you do that?”

“I can’t be normal while Brenner lives. You know that.”

“Kali, he’s dead. That man near Chicago had to have been mistaken.”

Kali shook her head. “I went back to him, you know.”

Jane gave a soft gasp, covering her mouth with one hand. “Kali, no…”

“He’s alive, and so are his daughters, so don’t worry your pretty head about that.”

“Then what did–”

“You know one of my powers is I can tamper with memories, right?”

“Huh?” Jane was not aware of that.

“He saw us, Jane. I had to go back to make a polite suggestion that he and his girls had not seen what they did. He went back to the police to retract his report, and after he did, they all forgot that we had even been there. I was protecting us. The effort almost killed me, but I did it.”

Jane took a shaky breath and scooted closer to Kali, leaning in with a frown. “How does that work?” she asked in a low whisper.

Kali straightened her spine and shrugged. “It’s like… post-hypnotic suggestion. I tell them what they saw, what they’re going to say, things like that. I only know it works because–” she pointed to her nose. “And Funshine wanted to take me to the hospital after that because there were seizures.”

“Stay here.”

“What?”

Jane reached forward to take Kali’s hands in hers, squeezing urgently. “Dad knows people that can make it so you can stay, so no one will bother you anymore. They made it so I’m his daughter, and they can do the same for you.”

Kali snatched her hands away, shaking her head in disgust. “That’s not for me, I’ve done too much to have a normal life.”

“But you could!”

“Not. If. Brenner. Lives.”

Jane’s shoulders sagged as she exhaled heavily, her hands going to her knees to nervously rub at them. “Could you do me a favor first?”

“Anything.”

“Before you go off to do this, I want you to spend a week here. Just a week to see how it feels to belong, and to be safe. I, at least, owe you that for making sure Ray Carroll stays away… yes?”

Kali scrunched up her nose and stroked her chin as though seriously considering the offer. Jane’s breath caught in her throat as she waited, almost certain that the brash young woman was just going to laugh in her face and say ‘thanks but no thanks’.

“If I don’t like it, you’re still staying here, correct?”

Jane nodded slowly. “I’m never leaving my family or Mike.”

Kali made a soft gagging sound at the mention of ‘Mike’ but still nodded. “Very well. But you will help me find Brenner. You don’t have to come with me, but I would like your very specific assistance. Ray actually pointed me in the right direction, and I want to be certain.” She dug into her coat pocket and pulled out an envelope, handing it to Jane. It was addressed to Ray, but the only return address was a post office box without a name.

“Why would he stay so close?” Jane inquired breathlessly, her throat tightening with real fear. “This is right of Bloomington.” She knew this because Mr. Clarke had arranged a field trip to the city, towards the beginning of the school year, and Jane had obsessively catalogued every sign between Hawkins and there, putting together her mental map, piece-by-piece. She never knew when a working knowledge of local geography would come in handy.

“Maybe he’s waiting to strike.”

Jane gave a little gasp, and started to stand. “I should show this to Dad, he’ll know what–”

Kali grabbed Jane by the wrist, her dark eyes wild with fear. “No! You may trust him, but I do not. At least not yet. He works for the police and Brenner works for the government, they could be like peas in a pod.”

“That’s not true.”

“Promise me you won’t say anything. I am begging you Jane… don’t take my choice away from me again. If I decide to stay after the week is up, I will show it to him myself.” Kali’s hands were gripping Jane’s shoulders, tears threatening to fall from her eyes as she pleaded her case. Jane felt her heart ache and her resolve crumble at the pitiful sight.

“I promise if you promise.”

Kali nodded, holding up a pinky and crooking it. “Pinky promise.” When Jane just stared at the little digit with a confused frown, Kali laughed and hooked her pinky around one of Jane’s. “It’s very serious, you know - pinky promises - much more binding than regular promises.”

“Oh. Okay then. Pinky promise.”

_________

“Joy-Joy?” Jim nuzzled the tender area behind Joyce’s ear as she stirred, lying on her side with her back facing him. “Faker, I know you’re awake.” He was rewarded with a grumpy little grumble.

“I thought I fell asleep on the living room floor.” She slapped away at one roving hand as it crept up her side. “Mad at you.”

“You did. Jonathan found you and read me the riot act for making you sleep in the doghouse; wouldn’t even let me explain myself.”

“Good. But he should’ve left me alone.”

Jim groaned. She was impossible when she dug in her heels. Stubborn as a mule. He reached over and tucked a lock of hair behind her ear, trailing one finger down the side of her neck. “I can’t sleep when you’re not in bed with me. I should thank him.”

Joyce snorted and shrugged, though he couldn’t mistaken the little whimper that escaped her lips when he started stroking her neck. “I sleep fine.” She turned onto her back and looked him straight in the eyes, her lips primly pursed, and her eyes unblinkingly serious.

“I’m not going to put the girl out on her ass, Joyce, but we need to take precautions if we’re going to care for her, even for a little while.”

“What kind?”

Jim shrugged. “I’m going to call Owens, for one.”

Joyce wrinkled her nose and sputtered a bit. “Why?”

“He has a way of knowing things. We could find out about her parents, maybe reach out to them; if she’s done everything she claims to have done he also might be able to make possible connections to her… disappear.”

“Or he could report her!”

Jim shook his head. “No. He wouldn’t want to bring another scandal down on the Department of Energy, especially after having to go along with that chemical leak story about the Holland girl, and I have a feeling this Kali is hard to keep quiet when she has something to say.”

Joyce sighed. “Well, that’s settled I guess. I’ll try to make room so she and Jane can share–”

“No.”

“No?” Joyce pulled herself into a sitting position, her frown deepening as she looked down at Jim. He sat up and placed his hands on her shoulders, leaning forward.

“I’m not saying we can’t take care of her, I’m just saying that maybe she should keep a bit of a low profile. The cabin.”

“With Harrington?”

“Why not? He’s trustworthy, and probably wants to pay it forward after we took him in.” Steve’s father had unceremoniously kicked him out when the Ivy Leagues turned him down one by one, and community college became a feasible option. Jim had despised Steve’s father in high school, so apart from being fond of the son, being able to stick it to the father by being the better man also factored into his decision.

“I guess. Steve has that place looking really nice lately, too.”

“It’ll be a palace compared to what she’s used to, I promise… And the fight for the bathroom in this house won’t have to get any worse than what it already is.”

“Okay.”

Jim grinned and leaned in for a kiss, pausing short before asking, “Still mad at me?” Their lips nearly brushing at the inquiry.

“A little, but feel free to kiss me all the same.” he felt her smile against his lips as they made contact.

“I love you.”

_________

“A roommate?” Steve Harrington leaned against the frame of his (Jim’s) front door as the chief himself stood on the porch and explained the situation. Joyce stood slightly apart from the pair, her arm around the shoulders of a diminutive punk rock chick carrying a knapsack.

“Temporary, I assure you,” The girl shot back in an acidic tone. His ears perked at her accent.

“Foreign exchange student, luv?” he teased, causing her to roll her eyes.

“As far as you’re concerned, yes,” Jim intervened before Kali could make another remark.

Steve made a face, sensing a definite red flag from the chief’s tone. “It’s a bit more delicate than that, isn’t it?”

Joyce nodded. “Yes, Steven. So we’d appreciate it if–”

“Hey, I’m going to be as silent as the grave.”

Kali pulled away from Joyce and pushed past Steve so she could enter the cabin. “Good,” she said, over her shoulder. “I wasn’t sure what I would do if I had to listen to your voice a second longer.”

Steve felt his cheeks burn as an impressed smile pulled at the corners of his mouth.


	4. Chapter Three

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Kali continues to upset the apple cart.

“I won’t sleep in the loft. It doesn’t have any walls or a door.” Kali stood in the middle of the living room with her arms folded across her chest, looking up at this yuppie-jock-preppie monstrosity, this… Steven, with the most imperious look she could muster. He may have been at least four inches taller than her, but he withered under the look - his cocky grin faltering. 

 

“Yeah, but my room does; I’ll just go into it if you need privacy. Besides, all of my stuff is already inside.” 

 

Kali’s eyebrows shot up her forehead. “Oh? Well, let’s see then.” Without another word, she brushed past the tall, tragic Tom Cruise impersonator named Steven and marched into “his” bedroom (she put it in quotes in her head  _ and _ in their conversation about it), and took a long look around. Steve ran in behind her, his pretty face a deep shade of crimson, his confident eyes wide and frantic. He lunged for the space under the bed and immediately began shoving various, glossy magazines under this flannel.

 

“Oh, no one cares about your stupid skin mags,” Kali scoffed with a roll of her eyes. The room was sparsely furnished, a dresser, a night stand, a bed, and few things to mark it as someone’s personal room. The dresser drawers, which were haphazardly open, didn’t even seem to contain that many clothes. “It will seriously take you ten minutes to move this stuff from here to the loft.”

 

Steve was frowning at her. “You can’t boss me around like you own the place. I pay rent, and I didn’t get the sense that this would be permanent at all.”

 

Kali felt a surge of irritation at his words. “I’ll help,” she intoned, focusing on the objects in the room. 

 

“Oh my fuck,” Steve gasped when every piece of clothing, every poster, every stick of furniture disappeared before his eyes. “Bring my stuff back!”

 

“Move it or lose it,” Kali replied, feeling her nostrils begin to tickle. It was a petty use of powers, but she was bored to tears with this Hawkins place already. Steve looked down at her and blanched at what he saw.

 

“Okay, okay! Just stop with whatever this is before you hurt yourself.” He dug into the pocket of his jeans and pulled out a handkerchief. “Here.” 

 

Kali ended the illusion, and took the bit of cloth from Steve’s trembling hands and pressed it against her bleeding nose. 

 

“So, you’re like Jane, huh?” His voice was soft - it had a careful, delicate quality that led Kali to believe he was concerned about her safety. 

 

“Kind of. Thank you for the handkerchief. It’s not weird that you carry them around or anything.” Kali pulled the handkerchief from her nose and observed the bloom of crimson in the middle of starched white linen. She assumed he wouldn’t want it back, so she shoved it into the pocket of her denim jacket.

 

Steve snorted. “My mom is old school. I have about a dozen of them.”

 

“Very proper.” 

They stood awkwardly for a moment that stretched into a long minute; Kali smiling up at Steve with a sheepish expression, Steve’s eyes on the floor, but occasionally lifting up to meet hers with a look that projected none of the irritation he might have had over their previous conversation. 

 

“Does it hurt? I don’t know Jane well at all, so I never felt okay about asking, but I always wondered.”

 

Kali shrugged. “Not really. Mostly I feel like… like a battery that’s being rapidly drained, I guess? I feel tired after.”

 

“Like now?”

 

“A little.”

 

Steve nodded and sighed. “Well, why don’t you go nap on the couch? I’ll wake you when your room is ready.”

 

_____________

 

“So, are you going to go visit her at the cabin after school?” Mike Wheeler between bites of his peanut butter and jelly sandwich in the school cafeteria. He, Lucas, Dustin, Will and Max all gave Jane expectant looks as they waited for her answer. 

 

Jane shrugged as she swirled her spoon around inside the pudding cup she was holding. “I don’t know if Dad would like that. He doesn’t really trust her, and he wants to wait on the OK from Dr. Owens.”

 

“Well, can you blame him? Hasn’t she killed like a shit ton of people?” Dustin asked. He yelped in pain as Lucas kicked him in the shin.

 

“Speak up, genius, I don’t think they heard you in Bloomington.” 

 

“Don’t kick me, asshole!”

 

“Guys!” Max, Will and Mike shouted in unison. Immediately the pair downgraded their disagreement from a potential brawl to mutual stormy stares.

 

“Funny you said Bloomington,” Jane spoke without thinking, her attention drifting off to the other side of the cafeteria where Jonathan and Nancy were having lunch. She wondered if either of them would be interested in lending their driving skills, should the moment call for it.

 

“Why is that funny?” Lucas inquired with a nervous half-smile.

“Huh?”

 

“Why is it funny I said ‘Bloomington’?”

 

Jane shook her head, tearing herself away from her reverie and bringing herself back into the conversation. “No reason,” she lied. The act of breaking the group’s cardinal rule made her guts twist, but if it wasn’t okay to tell Hopper, then it probably wasn’t okay to tell the group either. 

 

“I think she sounds cool, and I’d love to meet her if that’s possible,” Max admitted as she and Jane wordlessly exchanged food - Jane gave Max her apple and Max gave her a bag of fruit snacks. 

 

“Maybe. I don’t want her to feel like she’s on display. It might make her leave.”

 

Mike gave her a side hug, kissing her on the cheek as she fretted over the possibility. “Then we’ll wait until she’s ready.”

 

____________

 

“Fascinating,” Dr. Sam Owens breathed as he examined the tattoo on Kali’s forearm. Joyce wanted to give the girl a hug when she noted how tense and distressed she appeared under the doctor’s scrutiny. 

 

“And you say you escaped when you were how old?”

 

Kali shrugged and brought her knees to her chest, curling up in the old, battered recliner. Her eyes darted from the doctor, to Jim, and finally to Joyce, whose soft brown eyes were looking back at her with such naked sympathy that she visibly flinched before turning her attention back to Sam. 

 

“Young. Shortly after Brenner took Jane out of the Rainbow Room.”

 

Sam furrowed her brow and tutted. “You poor thing.” He stood and turned to Jim. “You’re killing me with this, Chiefo. I’m not your fairy godfather - there’s a lot more to it than just waving a magic wand and making pasts go poof! while birth certificates magically appear. 

 

“I don’t need a birth certificate or an adoption. I still have parents, you know,” Kali shot back, irritably.

 

Joyce felt winded by the guilty feeling that hammered into her chest. Sam had done some research on the girl before coming to the cabin, and the unfortunate truth was that her parents had died several years prior, after sudden and somewhat mysterious illnesses. 

 

“Mmm. I see...Chief, Mom, may I have a word with this young lady in private?” 

 

Joyce nodded as she took Jim’s hand and lead him to the front porch where Steve was already sitting and waiting. 

 

“Harrington, go check the traps while there’s still daylight,” Jim ordered gruffly. 

 

Steve made an aggravated noise before rising to his feet from the rocking chair and exiting the porch, shotgun in hand. 

 

“Why do you still have traps around here?” Joyce asked, looking up at Jim with a skeptical look.

 

“Not people traps, animal traps. Teaching the kid how to live off of the land so he’ll never have to depend on his loser father again.”

 

Joyce chuckled before her expression grew somber. “He’s telling her about her parents, I suppose.”

 

Jim nodded. “Yeah, and trying to get her to talk about other things that he might have to know about before working his shady government magic… we’re lucky he’s on our side.”

 

“So you want her to stay? Give her a shot at a normal life maybe?” Joyce’s tone was hopeful. In the past two days, she had found herself becoming somewhat attached to Kali. The girl clearly needed love, and to be able to trust and confide in someone. Plus, she was clever and funny, which had surprised Joyce since it had come out of the blue while the three of them (Kali, Steve, and herself) had been silently eating a grilled cheese and tomato soup lunch during Joyce’s break. Joyce had already forgotten the dry little quip the girl had offered up, but she didn’t forget the raucous laughter that she and Steve shared after hearing it… or the admiration shining in the young man’s eyes as he regarded the young girl. 

 

But Joyce didn’t like to meddle.

 

Jim shook his head. “What would we do with her? She’s practically an adult… it would probably be best to put her in the system for a little while, until she can land on her own two feet.”

 

Joyce blinked rapidly several times, an incredulous and mirthless smile quirking her lips. “What?”

 

“I mean, come on. Where would we put her?”

 

“We? I wasn’t aware you were speaking for me now.” 

 

Jim’s eyes widened as he caught the icy look in Joyce’s expression. He drew a sharp intake of breath before grinning at her with narrowed eyes. “Joyce, we live together we’re practically--”

 

“Things can change,” She cut him off, flatly, crossing her arms over her chest. “You talk pretty casually about the system, considering only one of us knows what it’s actually like in it, and that person is most definitely not you.” Joyce felt tears sting at her eyes as she hugged herself and shivered. It had been a brief and terrible moment in her life; her mother had been dead since before she could remember, and her father had… not taken it well. His behavior had veered between drunken to outright criminal until he was finally arrested after one drunken brawl too many. While he cooled his heels in jail for the better part of a year, 8-year-old Joyce was taken to live with an elderly couple some 80 miles outside of Hawkins in a town that was even more middle of nowhere than what she was used to. 

 

It had not been a pleasant experience for many reasons.

 

“Fuck. Joyce, I completely forgot about that.” Joyce jerked away when he tried to pull her into his arms.

 

“How nice for you!” She shot back. “I wish I could.”

 

“I’m an asshole, baby… come here.” She pushed at his chest as the tears flowed freely. 

 

“No! Not now, Hop.” Joyce buried her face between her hands and drew a shaky breath. “I’m sure you think you’re being super generous by getting Owens to clear her name and basically give her a fresh start, but we’re never discussing sending her away to a fate like that. I will take another job and give up eating to make sure she gets exactly what she needs when she’s in my care, but we’re never talking about foster care again, do you understand me?”

 

“If I say yes, will you please let me hold you a little.” His voice was pleading, and when she raised her watery eyes upwards, there was no mistaking the anguished expression on his penitent face. She put steel into her spine and stood straight and proud.

 

“I’m fine, and I don’t need you to say yes. It’s done.”

 

_________

 

Jane sat on the floor in the middle of her bedroom, criss-cross and elbows resting on her knees as she breathed in and out, slowly and steadily searching for her inner-focus. Finally, everything was black and nothing, and she was walking around in the void, her eyes focused on the man leaning forward behind a large desk made of dark wood. The closer she got, the more battered and damaged the desk appeared. There was a fine layer of dust on top of the yellowing papers that strew across it, and the man had an impressive head of white hair. Even with his face obscured as it bent low to scrutinize the documents in his scarred, red-mottled hands, Jane knew it was Papa.

 

She walked around behind him, angling to read the papers that so enthralled him. They were written in funny letters she couldn’t decipher. Maybe Russian? What had her history teacher called that writing again? Celtic? No, that wasn’t right… 

 

She gasped as Papa turned his head and she caught the full view of his visage. Thick, ropy scars ran across his face, nearly making his left eye appear both sewn shut and loose from its moorings. It darted blindly beneath the thin layer of purple tissue, looking for all the world like a horrific pearl nesting in an oyster. He looked up and Jane’s heart began to pound, her stomach turning at the way upper and lower lips were nearly torn in half, giving him a bit of a grotesque, unnatural harelip from where the Demogorgon’s claws had sliced. He was hideous, and for a moment, Jane mourned a face that had once been at least artificially kind in appearance. 

 

He looked down again, and Jane followed his gaze. There were photographs on the desk, ones that looked as though they had been taken in secret, most obscured by bushes of snapped through blinds. Pictures of Joyce, pictures of her father, her friends… herself. Whoever had taken them had been skulking around the schoolyard, the arcade and around the yards of basically everyone she knew and was close to.

 

Wild fear rose up in Jane’s chest and throat as she screamed a fierce, helpless scream.


End file.
